Sandy Lee

Planning is ready, and we have the presentation material. Any time the Members would like to have it, we’ll be happy to provide it.

I’m happy to advise the Members that the new plans, which are a lot more affordable and workable, are being shared by the public administrator with the employees. It would involve short term measures of moving admin offices out of Stanton, which will create a lot more space. We are doing work in the emergency facility there to deal with confidentiality and privacy issues. Building of the dementia centre will address the crowdedness in extended care. And there’s new work being done in the consolidated clinic that will deal with primary care services.

There’s a lot in the mix that would impact...

Mr. Speaker. Once again my information is that the doctors have been writing on the form that they fill out to get medication and palliative care pharmaceuticals that the doctor prescribes to patients…. They have been notified to put palliative care on the application. Green Shield knows about it, and it’s been running very smoothly. Maybe the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and was not aware of it, so I will make sure that the pharmacists are made aware of that. If a Member knows of any difficulties that any patient in palliative care is experiencing, I would like to know about that too. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question. Following up on the Member’s recommendation, we have implemented that. We have a process now where as long as the doctor says in the application for medication to Green Shield or whoever is administrating our health insurance that it’s palliative care, Green Shield has been processing the documents on a 24-hour turnaround basis. By all accounts, I understand that it’s working out really well. It was in practice almost within a month of the Member asking for this to be implemented.

Mr. Speaker, there is no plan to establish a seniors’ secretariat, because within the fiscal environment that we are working on, we are not able to look at expanding government bureaucracy. Even if there were a secretariat, whoever is working there would have to work with departments across the government, because seniors are looked after by Health and Social Services, by Income Security, by Housing, and in many, many different areas.

I think the point, the more important thing, is that we work together, and the Minister responsible for Seniors does do that. We work closely with the NWT Seniors...

Mr. Speaker, there is not a plan to set up a secretariat for seniors separately. However, we have a Minister responsible for Seniors who worked with the NWT Seniors’ Society and other seniors in the territory to address the seniors’ issues they advocate for on behalf of the seniors in the Territories.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member pointed out, this is not a new issue. It is a natural phenomenon, as the Member has stated. Municipal governments around the world take care of issues that the Member is raising. So I do believe that it is within the power and responsibility of the municipal government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to visit the community of Wrigley in May with the Member. We had a very productive meeting with the local leadership wherein one of the things that the chief and council asked for was to have a permanent nurse there.

I have had discussions with the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. We do have a fully functioning board and administration there, and their advice at this time is that Wrigley, for a community of its size and needs, has adequate services. They are recommending that we do not have a nurse placed there. Having said that that is...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if I’m making my point clearly here. The fact is I don’t think it’s prudent or responsible for the government to be funding a third party proposal at $30,000 to bring somebody in to do two training programs on how to use car seats if we can find resources from within.

What I’m telling the Member is that we have the entire health promotion section that works on injury prevention and how to use helmets safely. We rent out vests so as to prevent boating accidents, we distribute helmets for safe practices, and we do distribute car seats.

I think it’s not correct to say: why...

Mr. Speaker, the government and the Department of Health and Social Services take safety issues very seriously. We do public promotion, and we distribute vests, injury prevention measures. In cooperation with MACA and Transportation we distribute helmets for safety. In fact, we have distributed about 125 car seats. We have community health reps at the community level who work with parents to show them and teach them how to use their children’s car seats safely.

The way these are made…. It’s a modern machine and a lot more user-friendly than they used to be. I understand that there is a person...